Ferdinand Kwasi Fiawoo

Ferdinand Kwasi Fiawoo (26 December 1891, Wasuta – 21 July 1969) was a Ghanaian minister of religion, playwright and educator, founder of Zion College, the first secondary school in Ghana’s Volta Region.

Returning to the Gold Coast in November 1933, Fiawoo was appointed a Superintendent of the AME Zion Church in East Gold Coast, and General Manager of the Zion Education Unit atKeta. After co-founding the Gold Coast People’s College at Adidome, he set about founding a new private secondary school in Anloga, the first secondary school in the Volta Region. The New Africa University College opened with 44 students in 1938. Fiawoo, his staff and students toured his plays to raise funds for the school: Toko Atolia toured in 1940, and Tuinesein 1946, with an English version in 1947. Funding was also secured from the AME Zion Church in 1948, and some government subsidies from 1952.[1]

In 1945 Fiawoo gained a PhD from Roosevelt University in Chicago. He entered politics in 1951, as a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Gold Coast representing the Council of Chiefs for the Anlo state. His house was burnt down in an Anloga riot against taxes in January 1953, and Fiawoo did not return to politics after losing his Assembly seat in the 1954 elections. In 1952 he resigned as headmaster of New Africa University College. The college changed its name to Zion College and relocated to Keta; Fiawoo remained chairman of the college’s Board of Governors from 1954 until his death in 1969. He was simultaneously, from 1953, Chairman of Keta secondary school Board of Governors. In 1966 he co-founded the Bishop Small Theological College, named after John Bryan Small, at Whuti.[1]